


aristos achaion

by stubborn_jerk



Category: The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
Genre: Canonical Character Death, M/M, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27912193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stubborn_jerk/pseuds/stubborn_jerk
Summary: he is the greatest of the greeksa poem about gods, glory, and lovers
Relationships: Achilles/Patroclus (Song of Achilles)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	aristos achaion

**Author's Note:**

> shoutout to [ gab](https://twitter.com/navyblueart) for answering me almost immediately when i asked if i should post this. more on that in the end notes

The gods were no match for this:

Boyish curiosity in wide eyes, heavy enough for Atlas to carry

Fearlessness preceded by wariness in his smiles, in his footsteps

The lilt of his voice, near whisper, loud in the dark of our chambers.

This:

A hornet's nest set loose in my stomach as he pinned me down, breathless as

My mother roared, her waves crashing against the shore, as his lips met mine like

Petals meeting the ground for the first time.

Eyes alight and wet after months apart, he tells me:

"I would know you blind. I would know you in death, at the end of the world."

And this:

Fingers gentle, making quick work of my injuries, of me,

Elation perched on the cliff of his cheeks from his eyes as I told him

That I would be the first happy hero to be known because of him. I swore it.

This— knuckles white as he held my spear to stand,

This— the steadiness of his knees in my tunic,

And this— black curls engulfed by the bronze of my helmet.

 _Aristos achaion,_ he called me _. Greatest of the Greeks._

(He was wrong. He told me he’d be safe. He was _wrong_.)

They brought him back to me with a hole in his chest,

Limp and still in the cape Odysseus used as a stretcher.

With shaking hands, I reached out but could not touch him.

I was no match for him.

**Author's Note:**

> this was my finals project for creative writing two years ago and it was titled _patroclus_ but i wanted it to be a surprise :') so now it's aristos achaion
> 
> idk, i just wanted this out there after years of sitting on it. i hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> here are [my socials](https://stubbornjerk.carrd.co) if you ever find the need to bang down my door and demand answers or reparations or whatever


End file.
